Baby's First Solo Skiff Trip 10/10

[jrodda]

I had invited Omar over a week ago, but the combo of me not knowing when I would get the fuel line issue resolved and him getting invited to hoop on Friday night led me to a trip without a partner. I also tried inviting mechanic Chris as he helped me sort out a couple things after work including replacing the fuel filter and pump, but he had a gig in the morning.

I had brought the boat to Chris in HB where it would stay overnight, so I was split on whether to take the easy morning routine and launch out of HB, or keep trying the water off Dana Point. In the end, I figured after the car's gas was put into perspective, both would burn the same gas since I would wanna ride 15 miles past the HB Flat to find blue water, so I went with Dana.

Nice sunrise. It got even better but I had to focus on not f@cking up my first solo launch.



And of course I can never seem to just put in the water and go. Maybe one day. This time, I installed al the bunk slides on all the bunks. Took about 30 minutes. There are a couple minor issues that I won't get into, so I will monitor them. In the mean time, I should have a way easier time getting the boat on and off the trailer.



Knocked that out, hopped in the boat, left the harbor. Half a mile out, engine stalls while on plane. f@ck! I was sure we had solved it. Pretty much clueless, I took a video of it failing and sent it to Chris. Asked AI on the water what it could be, and why when I pump the bulb it would stay flat. It said there must be something upstream of the bulb. Then it occurred to me. When I installed the new fuel line/bulb, I did not pay attention to which direction it was going. Looked, yup! You're a f@cking idiot Jeremy! I texted Chris to let him know as much and I got to work flipping it. And when I was done, clean start. Hopped up on plane and ran a bit down the beach, problem gone.

After proving to myself that I may have been an idiot once, but I am a better man now, I decided to immediately head straight offshore in search of pelagics. Took a heading SW but not particularly toward the 267 or 14. Put out a Ledge Runner 160 and a tropical jet head and trolled at 7-9mph into swell. The wind was supposed to come up around 1400, but I knew it could come earlier, and I wanted a following sea home.

I imagine Tom was directly under the distinctive far cloud in this pic at 0900. Ominous clouds on the horizon telling me to time my trip carefully.



Trolled alongside another boat for a bit before he decided to turn around at 0930. Huh. Kept going. Eventually ran up on half a dozen boats, a couple with birds all over them. Looked like they were stopped and probably fishing bait. Then I noticed a flipped boat. I believe I saw it on social media earlier this week and it's been floating upside down in the bight for a few weeks now. No urgency in the area, that's for sure. The wind eeked up just a bit more as I found these boats and started zig zagging through them. Then a slow steady ZZZZZZZZZ. I turned around and saw the rod pump a bit, then slowed and I watched the Ledge Runner fly out of the water. Bite or did it violently blow out? Reeled up, and it was definitely bit in the middle of the body. Put it back out and tried to make a turn on the same spot. It was getting windier now and as soon as I thought I made the pass, I reeled up and skedaddled. The dark wall of clouds were still several miles away and I wanted to beat them home.

I could see the white caps popping up by the hundreds and the water tightly rippling now. The air felt still as I was moving at 17-20mph, not a great sign. Then I ran up on a paddy. Really Jeremy, in this? One drop. It was given to me! Stopped the boat and immediately felt how bad the conditions were getting behind me. Gave it a 15 second drop with a colt sniper then wound up and kept racing home.

This was a pretty comprehensive test for the boat. The swell was pretty mixed, with a longer faster period SW swell that's been shaking up the coast, followed by W and SW short wind chop. I was slamming a good bit but staying only very lightly misted. I was worried about stuffing the bow, but it just never happened. Kept the throttle to 4000rpms and only made slight adjustments to my direction, and held on tight til I passed the jetty.



Pulled the boat up onto the trailer with the bunk slides. While powering the boat onto the trailer, it seemed to get stuck short somewhere for a few seconds, and just as I stepped around to inspect, the boat gently moved up the rest of the way onto the trailer.

Anyway, a lot of words to say I didn't catch anything. Big relief with the fuel line and the trailer bunks, though. Next launch shouldn't have any delays like all of them have up to now. Hopefully the pelagics stick around for a while longer, and I think they will.